Divergent: Zack
by Kulmanari
Summary: Finding out the truth about my past wasn't easy. Some days I wish I could go back to being normal, but being normal is just a less insulting way of saying that you're ignorant. This path had been chosen for me at birth and I was about to go it alone.


**A/N:** Welcome to my new multi-part story. First up in the hot seat is Zack! I hope you all enjoy!

_**Divergent: Zack**__ – Divergent: Cody – Divergence _

**Chapter One**

**"**_**Blood In The Water"**_

I can't believe that it's finally over! This moment was eighteen years in the making and if it weren't for the sting of Maya Bennett dumping me the day before, I couldn't have imagined a more perfect way to end my senior year of high school. It hurt, but at least I had my best buddy by my side as we walked down the gangway disembarking the S.S. Tipton for the last time.

We paused together as we set foot on dry land and looked back at the towering luxury liner behind us that had been our home for the past couple of years. Things would never be the same. Returning my gaze to the Boston skyline, it suddenly struck me that I was at a major turning point in my life. I was leaving behind a life of traveling the world with my friends and twin brother and stepping into an adult life full of work, bills, and other stuff that I wasn't looking forward to.

The adventure on the high seas was over…

"We had a good run didn't we Codes?"

My brother looked me in the eye and gave me a genuine smile devoid of his usual witty sarcasm. Even though the break-up with Maya was bringing me down, I couldn't imagine how bad he felt at being rejected by Yale. Getting into a good college had been Cody's lifelong dream whereas my relationship with the brown haired angel had lasted a little over three months. I'd find another girl in a month or so, but Yale had been Cody's goal for years.

The whole thing bothered me in a way I hadn't expected. Somehow, Yale reminded me of bullies putting down other kids because they weren't good enough, because they thought that only they were the best, and what they did to Cody really ticked me off. It's like the unwritten code of brotherhood; I get to make fun of him and put him down all the time, but no one else is allowed to do that and get away with it.

"Yeah Zack," he replied with a touch of sadness in his voice. Whether it's from leaving the ship or the pain of rejection, I couldn't tell, but I bet it was a bit of both. He threw his arm around my shoulders and for once I didn't pull away from him. This wasn't a moment for my macho ego to guide my actions. This was our moment and I didn't mind sharing an increasingly rare moment of affection with my sibling.

"What do we do now?" I asked him. Truly, I hadn't given my future anywhere near as much thought as Cody had with his but lately, I'd come to believe it would involve Maya. Now that that fleeting dream was gone, I felt utterly lost. It was a scary feeling, not knowing what to do anymore. Not having any guidance or anything, just thrown out of high school and expected to face the world.

"I guess I'll try another college. What about you?"

"Dunno man," I muttered, giving him a halfhearted shrug. I needed some time to think about my next move and hopefully some solitude at home would help me figure things out.

"Zack…" Cody began to scold me. He hated that I preferred to fly by the seat of my pants while he scheduled his life down to the minute. I wasn't in the mood for a lecture. It was such a nice day, all things considered, and I didn't want any arguments or feelings of self-pity to darken it.

"We should get going," I said, pulling away from my brother and forestalling further discussion, "Mom and Dad are waiting on us."

Our parents had returned to the port ahead of us while we said our final goodbyes on the ship. They were waiting for us in the temporary parking area further inland and we set off in that general direction. I was surprised at how empty the pier was; we must have stayed aboard long after most of the passengers had gotten off.

As Cody and I approached the terminal, a black limousine quietly slipped past us from the V.I.P. parking area which was near the gangway. We looked at it for a moment, trying to figure out who it belonged to. It wasn't our friend London seeing as her gold plated limo had already whisked her off to her suite at the Tipton Hotel in downtown Boston over half an hour ago, and I couldn't think of anyone else on the ship who had a limo that big. It was difficult to be a big shot aboard the ship and not be known to yours truly.

That moment in time marked the final seconds that my life was normal. What happened next would change everything that I thought I knew about the world forever. Nothing would be normal again. In fact, nothing ever had been; I had been blinded by ignorance my whole life.

A slew of engines revved up nearby and before I knew what was happening several black SUV's screeched to a halt in front of us, boxing the limo in on three sides. Instinctively I threw out my arm and pulled Cody down into a crouch behind a pallet loaded with luggage bound for the Tipton. He looked at me questioningly, trying to figure out why he was on the ground and what was going on. I shook my head and pressed my finger to my lips to tell him to be silent. I had the feeling we'd get our answers soon enough.

Roughly a dozen men dressed in urban black and gray fatigues jumped out of the blocking vehicles and spread out in a semi-circle, their assault rifles leveled at the luxury vehicle. Their faces were obscured by their Kevlar helmets, dark eye protection and balaclava's worn over their heads. All of them were decked out with body armor, spare magazines and grenade pouches, radio equipment and an assortment of gear that wasn't readily identifiable. These guys meant business…

I wondered who it was that they were after and why they were so heavily armed. A little voice in the back of mind asked whether or not it was safe to be so close. What if the guy in the limo had a bomb or something? What if bullets started flying? I seriously doubted that the stack of luggage could protect us from that considering we were only 30 feet away. Just as I was voicing my concerns to my brother in hushed tones, a commanding voice rang out over the pier.

"Stay right where you are!" My heart hammered in my chest and Cody's grip on my arm tightened in fear. We'd been discovered…

"Mr. Bennett, step out of the vehicle slowly with your hands above your head."

They weren't talking to us. Relief flooded through me like a glass of ice water on a hot day. Wait a minute… Bennett? No, Maya's family wasn't rich. They couldn't afford a limo. It was just a coincidence. Nevertheless Cody and I exchanged worried looks. He was thinking the same thing I was.

The rear passenger door opened and a young man with short brown hair casually stepped out, seemingly oblivious to the dozens of semi-automatic weapons pointed at him. He smoothed out the wrinkles in the cuffs of his black jacket and straightened his matching tie. The guy didn't even seem concerned at all; rather he projected an air of boredom.

There was something else about him that I couldn't identify though. It was maddening in a way, like how when you've got the name of a person or thing on the tip of your tongue, but it continues to elude you. The air seemed to buzz with power around him, reminding me of a time Cody and I stood underneath a power transformer and the hairs on our arms stood up from all of the static electricity.

"Gentlemen, is there a problem?" The twenty something year old asked sarcastically. He crossed his arms and pinned the leader of the assault team with an intense glare. Clearly, the guy wasn't about to willingly submit to the armed men.

What bugged me about this though was the fact that they hadn't rushed the guy yet. You always see it on T.V. or in the movies, as soon as the bad guy is out of the car they take him down with extreme prejudice. There was something else going on here that I didn't understand yet. Cody nudged me in the ribs and I looked over at him.

"Zack, these guys aren't the police," my twin hissed, concern evident in his eyes.

"They're not government either, they would have identified themselves by now," I replied, suddenly realizing the truth in our observations. Whoever they were, these guys weren't legit.

"Maybe we should get out here?" Cody asked, glancing back over his shoulder. I shook my head slowly, there was nowhere to go. The only way off the pier was blocked. If we tried to go back to the ship, we'd be completely exposed. The best thing we could do was to remain quiet and out of sight until the armed men left.

Unfortunately, that would soon prove to be harder said than done.

"Sydney Bennett, we're here to take your father into custody. Stand aside immediately," the assault team leader said over a megaphone from behind the protective barrier of men and vehicles that separated him from the limousine.

"He is not here and you are a fool for thinking you could take him with this token force of mundanes," Sydney replied smugly. Once again I felt that strange buzz in the air, only this time it grew more powerful. It felt like the onset of a thunderstorm as the pressure dropped and the charge in the air grew; ready to unleash Zeus's fury from the dark clouds above.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Cody commented. I didn't say anything, because while my brother was concerned I found myself eagerly anticipating Sydney's next move. Something incredible was about to happen, I could feel it in my bones and my heart beat faster from all of the suspense.

"Then you'll just have to come with us young man. Get down on your knees and place your hands on your head." Sydney's arms dropped to his side, his hands balled into fists and he didn't comply.

"No."

The men steadied their rifles and took aim at the young man. This was absurd. He was barely a couple of years older than me and unarmed to boot. Why were they being so cautious? Shouldn't they have just rushed him by now? Surely they could take him down in a matter of seconds.

"I am an Adept," Sydney said, eliciting several tense looks and whispered comments between the armed men, "I suggest you leave now. If you don't, this will not end well; for you."

Adept? What the hell was that? But there was no time for me to ponder its meaning as all hell broke loose.

"Take him down," the team leader shouted.

Two of the armed commandos rushed forward to subdue Sydney. In a blur of motion, the young man delivered a devastating kick to the side of the first commandos head, sending him sprawling to the ground. The movement spun him out of the way of the second attacker, but he quickly recovered, grabbed the man's rifle with his left hand and throat punched the guy with his right.

"Oh shit, oh shit," Cody whimpered, too frightened to turn away from the violence. He tried to duck down further and his body began shaking in fear; but he never looked away for a moment. I on the other hand was too engrossed watching one man prevailing over impossible odds. Sydney was a regular bad-ass. I was immediately jealous of the dude's martial arts skills.

Several soft clicks of safeties being released echoed along the pier as the second man crashed to the ground struggling to breathe next to his unconscious companion. I said an explicit word that raised my twin's eyebrows and surely would have earned me a stiff punishment if my parents were around. I grabbed Cody and threw him flat on the ground beside me just as the bullets started flying.

Ear splitting cracks nearly deafened us as bits and pieces of luggage rained down on top of us and bullets whizzed by only inches above our heads, so close that I could feel the air being displaced by the lead slugs. Cody screamed in fear and shut his eyes tight against the insanity consuming the pier. I gritted my teeth and threw an arm around him.

It seemed to last forever as bullets zinged through the air and ricocheted off metal surfaces all over. The gunfire was punctuated by the screams of men as they were hit and the sounds of their bodies crumpling to the ground. Car alarms blared throughout the chaos adding to the cacophony of loud noises.

Gradually the gunfire died down to a few panicked bursts and the sound of men running. One of those men ran past the pallet of shredded luggage we were hiding behind. He was clearly fleeing from someone or something as he looked back over his shoulder and spotted us.

Before we knew what was going on, we were staring down the barrel of the commando's gun.

They say you never really know the measure of a person until they are placed in a crisis situation. You never really know if someone is a coward or not until they've had someone standing before them about to end their life. Fortunately for Cody, I wasn't a coward and I pulled him out of the line of fire and covered him with my body. I would take a bullet for my brother. There was never any doubt in my mind.

When the searing hot pain of metal ripping through flesh failed to come about, I looked up at the commando only to see him take aim at the top of the pallet and fire a burst from his rifle. His shots went wide and someone jumped down in front of us. It was Sydney!

More bullets came our way, but the young man threw up his left arm as though he was wielding a shield from the medieval times and the metal slugs never hit us. In fact, they never hit anything. It looked like they had been vaporized by a flash of red light as they impacted Sydney. The impacts sounded vaguely like a mosquitos getting cooked by a bug zapper.

What the heck was going on?

The sound of running feet was the next thing that I heard and suddenly a young woman appeared an instant before she unleashed a powerful roundhouse kick that delivered an unusual amount of force and hurled the commando over the edge of the pier into the calm water below. She turned to look at us and started in surprise.

"Ma…Maya?" I stuttered, unwilling to believe what I had just seen. How was she involved in all of this and how did she just launch a two hundred pound guy into the bay with a kick? Cody was speechless beside me, his mouth hanging open in awe.

"Zack? What are you doing here!" She scolded me, angrily jabbing her finger in my direction. I was almost too stunned to answer. SHE was mad at ME? I couldn't wrap my head around it.

"Me?" I croaked, "What are YOU doing here?" My ex-girlfriend was supposed to be on her way to Africa where she was going to work for the Peace Corps, not out fighting armed men on the pier.

Sirens wailed in the distance, though quite a few sounded much closer. Sydney glanced around nervously and grabbed Maya by her arm, breaking her eye contact with me. She glared at her older brother and then back to me.

"We need to leave before the police show up," Sydney remarked, and then to us he said, "You two saw nothing, understand?"

Without waiting for a reply, the two of them ran back towards their limo. After a moments' hesitation I chased after them. I wanted answers. I wanted to know what Maya was doing fighting heavily armed men. But most of all, I wanted to know why my brother and I had almost gotten shot because of them.

"Zack wait!" Cody cried out, beckoning me back to our previous hiding spot. I ignored him and eventually I heard him come after me. Unfortunately the Bennett's made it back to their vehicle and bulldozed a path through the damaged SUV's before I could get to them. My twin caught up to me as I stopped running, bumping into me from the sudden stop. He steadied himself with a hand on my shoulder.

"My god…"

We both stared at the carnage that had been left behind in their wake. Bloodied, broken bodies littered the area. Some of them had died from gunshots; the rest were severely wounded from a variety of physical attacks and their agonized cries of pain competed with the ever increased volume of the approaching emergency services. After everything that had happened, I knew that we had to get out of there before the police showed up. I said as much to my brother and he looked at me like I'd slapped him.

"Zack…We can't, we're witnesses," Cody protested in a small voice. The color had drained from his face and he looked like he was ready to hurl at any moment.

"Witnesses to what? This was unnatural and you know it."

Cody reluctantly surveyed the carnage one last time before slowly nodding in agreement. There was no way Sydney could have done all of this. My brother would normally say that there is a logical explanation for everything, but this time he came up empty. Nothing we had seen added up.

We fled the scene not a moment too soon. As Cody and I searched for our parents and the family car he looked back the way we'd come with a forlorn expression on his face.

"What do you think really happened back there?"

"I don't know," I answered truthfully, "But I think the truth might be far stranger than anything I could ever come up with in my wildest dreams…"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** And so the plunge into my twisted mind has begun! Sydney Bennett with his martial arts, super strength, speed and immunity to bullets? Maya jumping into the fray? Oh my! Leave a review and tell me how you like it or ask questions. I will respond, but I won't spoil anything (too much... /evil cackle).

A big thanks goes out to Tiger for beta reading this chapter! It's been six months since I posted a new story, so I hope this was worth it. I've got a couple of buffer chapters ready for editing and beta, never fear! This will be a three part story with the first half following each of the twins in their own respective storylines as the main plot unfolds. If you've ever read D.J. MacHale's books "The Light" and "The Dark" (author of the Pendragon series) you'll have a good idea of what I'm doing with their points of view (and no, neither of them will end up like Cooper, both remain on "The Light" side of things =P).


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